Insurance

Did you know as a benefit of your BAPO membership you are covered by 3 types of insurance which the association purchase? The following is a brief summary of these polices and what the cover provides.

Public Liability

Legal Liability for Bodily Injury or Damage caused to Third Party Persons or Property arising out of activities in connection with the business occurring during the Period of Insurance.

This covers you if someone is injured due to something that you have done during your normal duty of work for example if you left a bowl of water down in a clinic room as you were taking a cast and someone fell over this bowl and injured themselves.

Product Liability

Legal Liability for Accidental Bodily Injury or Damage caused to Third Party Persons or Property arising out of Goods Sold or Supplied in connection with the business occurring during the period of Insurance.

This covers you if someone is injured by a product that you were going to fit to a patient during your normal working duties for example if you were walking to a clinic and you dropped a box containing a pair of shoes and this landed on someone injuring them.

Both of these policies have a limit.

Public Liability £5,000,000 – Any one incident/unlimited in the Aggregate

Products Liability £5,000,000 – Any one incident and in the Aggregate

Medical Malpractice Insurance

Legal Liability for claims made during the period of Insurance as a direct result of negligence, error or omission in the conduct and execution of professional activities and duties, extending to include Good Samaritan acts. An example of this is any circumstance where a healthcare professional has failed to discharge their duty of care to the patient, i.e. negligence which results in loss/injury. This policy would react to claims made by the claimant’s solicitors against the individual concerned and in all cases of Private Work (i.e. where no NHS indemnity applies.) It would also respond to pay for defence costs in addition to any awards in damages.

This policy carries a limit of £10,000,000 to cover all members, Any one claim and in the annual aggregate, costs inclusive

Private work

If you carry out any private work and you wish to extend your cover for this private work then we require you to complete an insurance questionnaire, no different from the sort of questions you would be asked when taking out home or motor insurance, and we also require you to pay an additional £250 charge. We have had to add this extra charge due to the risk associated with Private work and previous claims made against our policy. We ask that you pay this charge at renewal time it can also be added to your DD if you pay by that method as we need to inform our insurance company the names of members undertaking Private work. We gat many questions asking how you define Private work and the advice from our insurance company is to define NHS work and anything else is classed as Private work.

Any work carried out by a NHS member of staff as part of their normal duties for their NHS employer or for a member of staff, of a company carrying out their normal duties as part of a contract that their employer holds with an NHS hospital or authority. Any other work carried out by a BAPO member is classed as private work.

FAQ

We have put together the following case examples to help with some enquiries about what is considered as private work for BAPO private insurance supplement requirement. The following information applies to all Full Members and Associate Members. For Retired Member’s and Non Practicing Member’s the BAPO Member’s Insurance only covers for treatments carried out when you had Full Member status.

If you are employed and paid by the NHS and only see NHS patients then you are covered for any claims made against you by the BAPO members insurance policies and do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you are employed and paid by the NHS but also see Private patients who attend your hospital but you do not receive any extra payment for these patients then you are covered for any claims made against you by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you are employed and paid by the NHS but also see Private patients who attend your hospital and you receive extra payment for these patients please check with your employer as they should insure you for this work and this will cover for any claims made against you by these patients and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement if your employer has a Private Insurance policy in place.

If you are employed by a company and paid by the same company who provide a service to the NHS and you see these NHS patients then you are covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you are employed and paid by a company who provide a service to the NHS but also see Private patients who attend the hospital where you provide a service but you do not receive any extra payment for these patients then you are covered for any claims made against you by the BAPO members insurance policies and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you are employed and paid by a company who provide a service to the NHS but also see Private patients who attend the hospital where you provide a service and you receive extra payment for these patients please check with your employer as they should insure you for this work and this will cover for any claims made against you by these patients and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you are employed by the NHS or a company but see patients in your own time and these patients pay you direct then you will be required to purchase the private insurance supplement if you wish to be covered under the BAPO member’s policies for these additional private patients. Your normal caseload seen through your employment is covered by BAPO insurance regardless of purchase of private practice supplement.

If you provide locum services to the NHS and are paid direct by the NHS who deduct tax and NI then you are covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you provide locum services to a company who supply a service to the NHS and you invoice the company for your time and you are paid by the company who deduct tax and NI then you are covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you provide locum services to a company who supply a service to the NHS and you invoice the company for your time and you are paid by the company who do not deduct tax and NI and you complete your own tax returns, then you are not covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you will need to purchase the insurance supplement to be covered for all patients.

If you see patients at a private sports clinic and these patients pay you direct then you are not covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the standard BAPO member’s insurance policies and you will need to purchase the private practice insurance supplement to be covered.

If you are employed at the sports clinic and paid by the clinic please check with your employer as they should insure you for this work and this will cover for any claims made against you by these patients and you do not need to purchase the insurance supplement.

If you visit a patient at their home to provide a service and this patient pays you direct for this service then you are not covered for any claims made against you by these patients by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you will need to purchase the private practice insurance supplement to be covered.

If you provide Medico Legal reports and invoice for these reports then you are not covered for any claims made against you in relation to these reports by the BAPO member’s insurance policies and you will need to purchase the insurance supplement to be covered.

If you run your own Private Orthotic/Prosthetics Company and trade as a Ltd company the BAPO member’s insurance will not be adequate for your needs, and we suggest you contact an insurance broker/company to purchase the legally required cover.

If you run your own Private Orthotic/Prosthetics Company but do not trade as a Ltd company we suggest you contact an insurance broker/company for advice.

If you are unable to find a scenario from the above that describes your clinical practice please contact the BAPO Secretariat and we will seek advice from our insurance broker/company.

Please note that in all of the above cases you are perfectly entitled to purchase your own private insurance should you require it and do not need to purchase the BAPO supplement.

Also please note for all claims made against you, the claim limitations are 3 years from the date of the treatment but there are cases where this can be extended such as: if the patient can argue that they did not realize at the time of treatment that the treatment was going to cause them a problem until they see another health professional who reveals the issue or; when treating minors which allows 3 years limit after their 18th birthday (or 19thbirthday where learning disability is involved). You are recommended to have insurance in place to suitably cover these limitations at the time of claim being raised.

As a HCPC registrant, you will be expected to ensure that you have indemnity insurance suitable for the practice that you undertake. In many cases, NHS indemnity or employers liability insurance is sufficient.

Please Note :- BAPO member insurance policies only cover work carried out in the UK

The main thing that you need to remember that if a claim is made against you will need to be seen to have been working within your competences and not carrying out procedures that you are not trained for. This is a very valid point today and one that all AHPs should be adhering to.

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The British Association of Prosthetists and Orthotists (BAPO) was established to encourage high standards of prosthetic and orthotic practice. It is committed to Continued Professional Development and education to enhance standards of prosthetic and orthotic care.